Dr. Walter Walker Palmer I

Dr. Walter Walker Palmer, a distinguished emeritus member of the New York Clinical Society, died suddenly on October 25, 1950 of a heart attack at his farm in the Berkshire hills. There had been no premonition of illness, and he was happily working with his sons in the fields when the end came. The sudden void created by his death came as a great shock not only to his family and colleagues but to all manner of persons who loved him for his companionship or who depended upon him for his wisdom and strength.

Dr. Palmer's career has a fictional quality in that a modest, gently-spoken farm boy, without early medical indoctrination and without powerful sponsorship, should rise to pre-eminence in his field. He became an acknowledged leader at a period when an avalanche of epoch-making advances in diagnostic and therapeutic methods continually created situations requiring momentous decisions, and his contributions in developing new points of view in the study of disease, in formulating the philosophy of medical training, and in broadening the scope of the modern clinic will long be recognized and appreciated.

He was born near Southfield, Massachusetts on February 27, 1882, and began formal schooling at nearby Mt. Hermon Academy. He graduated with distinction from Amherst in 1905, where he is still remembered as the rugged linesman and varsity captain who in his day had no peer on the gridiron. While an undergraduate he published his first scientific paper describing a new species of primitive mammal which he had excavated in the alluvial plains of Wyoming. His professional career began in 1910, when he graduated from Harvard Medical School and took up his internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. There his interest centered on the chemical derangements found in certain clinical conditions; he abandoned his original intention of entering practice to accept a residency at Mass General and an instructorship in Physiological Chemistry at Harvard, in order to further his studies on the altered acid-base equilibrium occurring in diabetics and nephritises. In 1915 he joined the medical group at the Rockefeller Institute, where he continued to investigate metabolic derangements and incidentally devised the first reliable quantitative method for hemoglobin determination.

Two years later he became Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia, and during the trying period of the First World War remained as a restless civilian at his post, where he was needed to direct the medical service of the Presbyterian Hospital, instead of participating actively in the armed services where he held a commission in the Medical Reserve Corps. In 1919 Dr. Palmer became Associate Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. In 1921 he returned to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as the first full-time director of the Department of Medicine, and he occupied that chair until his retirement in 1947.

During these active twenty-six years, the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center was completed and he developed a large and effective department, uniting the talents of instructors, full-time investigators, and part-time practicing physicians. The door of his office was never closed to his colleagues, who felt free to seek his advice on obscure cases or to talk over their research problems. He had warm understanding and a remarkable gift of evaluation, and could tersely dismiss unessential and misleading factors. Frankness, vision, gentleness, and selflessness were beautifully blended in Bill Palmer, and everyone associated with him trusted him and loved him as a man and as a leader.

He was at one time president of the Harvey Society, the American College of Physicians, and the New York Clinical Society, and served on the council and executive committees of many others. During the war years, he was an important figure in national planning and served as chairman of the Committee on Drugs and Medical Supplies of the National Research Council. Afterward, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Medical Affairs to draw up recommendations included in the Bush report to the President on the plan of organization of a National Science Foundation. He was the author of numerous scientific papers and textbook articles dealing chiefly with derangements in metabolic diseases and with his studies on the thyroid. He served on the editorial staff of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Medicine, and at the time of his death was editor-in-chief of the Nelson System of Medicine and chairman of the Advisory Committee of the American Journal of Medicine, while serving as director of the Public Health Institute of the City of New York.

But the greatness of Walter Palmer does not lie exclusively in his accomplishments. To him, living was a rich and abundant privilege. He relished and glorified the moments of leisure that came after hard work and would enter into the spirit of relaxation with buoyant and contagious enthusiasm. He enjoyed his concerts, his golf, his workshop, and his convivial gatherings with his colleagues, but to him, his home was a special source of pride and happiness. The Tyringham Valley with its wooded hills and little clearings made by the hands of early settlers meant more and more to him with the years, and here on his farm he went for strength and inspiration and for detachment from worldly bondage. Here, amid the surroundings he loved best, on a colorful crisp late autumn afternoon, he laid down his tasks and dreams for the future, to be carried out as best they can by younger hands — many of his own training.

Memoir adapted from a tribute by Dr. Franklin Hanger, 1972.